It’s 10 April 2017, and you know what that means. Yes, it’s the 276th anniversary of the Battle of Mollwitz (everybody knows that), but it also happens to be Leon Kowalski’s birthday. Well, Leon’s inception day to be precise. Who’s Leon Kowalski? He’s a replicant from the classic 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner.
Replicant Leon Kowalski in the 1982 sci-fi utopia film Blade Runner, set in the futuristic world of 2019 (Screenshot from YouTube)
For those of you who haven’t seen the film, Blade Runner stars Harrison Ford and takes place in the utopian world of 2019. Ford plays a blade runner — someone tasked with hunting down and “retiring” rogue replicants (humanoid robots) like Leon.
Leon is the first replicant we see in the film. He’s being given a Voight-Kampff test, which allows humans to be able to tell the difference between replicants and other humans.
Here in the year 2017 we have similar tests, but they don’t have cool names like Voight-Kampff and they’re given to humans much more regularly than they are in the 1982 film.
The 2017 version of the Voight-Kampff test, which is taken regularly by humans and robots alike here in the 21st century (Screenshot from Google)
Leon eventually liberates himself from his human captors (spoiler alert) but sadly he meets a grisly end. (Despite being a more utopian and optimistic vision of Los Angeles in the future than it is today, Blade Runner does have its moments of violence.)
The film is set in 2019, so Leon is just two years old, having been created on 10 April 2017. Happy inception date Leon! Stay safe out there and watch out for blade runners!